How To Utilize Power Tool Techniques To Make Social Change
Felicia Davis, Founder of Haus of Vocal Empowerment, and Take The Lead Leadership Ambassador, leading a Power Tools session at the 2024 Power Up Conference.
Art imitates life—always and forever.
But that particularly rings true now in the U.S. as the urgency to establish gender parity across all leadership sectors is amplified as women’s cultural, economic, civil and human rights erode and are rescinded. This is at the same time as a popular fictional series articulates the reality almost too well.
In the new Hulu series, “The Testaments,” based on literary icon Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel, the culture of the dystopian Gilead honors the glory of men, and the use of women mostly as heir-producing wives and mothers only—though some roles are for cooks, teachers and beekeepers.
Atwood, who is the keynote speaker at Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference 2026 on Women’s Equality Day August 26, is eerily prescient about the strangling of reproductive rights and choice that are hallmarks of 2026 in this country. Her work also echoes the claims in power chambers across the world.
“Margaret Atwood, author and keynote @takeleadwomen #PowerUpConference, is eerily prescient about the strangling of #reproductiverights and choice that are hallmarks of 2026 in this country. @testamentshulu”
Learn more and register here for the Power Up Conference 2026
“Power is survival in Gilead,” says the character in “The Testaments,” Daisy, who is a Pearl Girl, allegedly an aspiring Plum, a potential wife for a commander in the all-powerful patriarchy.
“Ultimately the story is of how Aunt Lydia succeeded to bring Gilead down,” says Gloria Feldt, cofounder and president of Take The Lead about Atwood’s novel.
Read more in Take The Lead on Margaret Atwood
Speaking about the meaningful connections to the work of international prize-winning author Atwood to the IRL mission of Take The Lead, Feldt says, “Lydia meticulously organized it all. That’s the message of ‘The Testaments.’ Even in the worst of situations, you have power to change even when you appear to have no power.”
“Gloria Feldt, co-founder, pres @takeleadwomen: “Even in the worst of situations, you have power to change even when you appear to have no power.” #leadership #powerdynamic”
Read more from Gloria Feldt on 5 lessons from Changemakers
The relevance and agency of the 9 Leadership Power Tools Feldt developed and updated in a new course is critical today as women are in real life losing ground in employment, top leadership roles and recognition of their independence, capacity and power. This is as women are often assigned culturally to a genderized aversion to ambition.
The cultural and economic system in place today is in retrograde informed by disinformation, as The Free Press recently reports. Katie Miller, “wife of Stephen Miller, recently warned on her podcast—that women’s ‘biological destiny is to have babies, not slave behind desks chasing careers while our civilization dies,’” author Patrick Brown writes.
He claims that narrative ignores data. “The recent plunge in the birth rate can be pinned on low-income women without a college degree—although even that feels unfair. The biggest share of the recent plunge in America’s birth rate has come from unmarried women, including those in their teens and 20s. You can’t understand the decline in American fertility if you do not account for the fact that women without a college degree are predominantly the ones opting out of both single parenthood and marriage.”
“The Testaments,” follows the story of teen women whose role in life is to get married to a commander and produce children. In one scene, the character Agnes walks through a room of men who come off as leering predators, as she is there to announce that she has had her first period.
Listen to Take The Lead podcast on social change
In the series, all the men congratulate her father as if his daughter is a mindless, choiceless possession.
“Blessed be the fruit,” the women say when they greet each other, as if their fertility is their only worth.
Brown writes about the current culture, “Any theory of fertility decline has to reckon with the reality that childbearing outside of marriage is rapidly receding for a mixture of economic, technological, and cultural factors, particularly for working-class women, and that marriage remains a strong predictor of childbearing. Blaming the girlboss won’t cut it.”
Read more in Take The Lead on social changemakers
Creating social change in the real world, whether it is for yourself, or as a leader in an organization or entrepreneur, requires several layers of distinct action and tools. Catherine Alonzo, co-founder/CEO of Javelina, and author of the new book, “The Changemaker’s Toolkit: How To Power Social Change in A World That Needs Hope,” writes, “Change begins with hope. Belief drives action.”
“Catherine Alonzo, co-founder/CEO of Javelina, author of “The Changemaker’s Toolkit,” writes: “Change begins with hope. Belief drives action. @catherinealonzo @javelina #changemakers”
Alonzo, who hosts the podcast, “How To Change The World,” is speaking at Take The Lead’s May 20 event, “Becoming Her: 50 Women Equipped To Lead The Change.” The luncheon event in Phoenix features the next group of 50 women entrepreneurs engaging with the latest Take The Lead training.
Register here for Becoming Her
The Take The Lead course informed by the Power Tools includes Power Tool #1: Know Your History, defined as, “Know your history and you can create the future of your choice.”
“Power Tool #1 @takeleadwomen: Know Your History, and you can create the future of your choice. #leadership #socialchange”
Power Tool #2, Define Your Own Terms, offers strategies on, “How to define your own terms first, before someone else defines you. Plus, the power of intention and gender bilingual communication.”
These tools are in alignment with Alonzo’s book. “Creating change begins with knowing the world you want to create and why it matters; it continues by constantly taking the next step toward making it true; and it is propelled by believing in the possibility,” Alonzo writes.
Alonzo states that four essential tools to making social change involve vision, action, values and conviction.
“Having the desire to make change is a vital precursor for driving impact, but you can only realize true change when you are equipped with the tools you need to sustain action over time,” Alonzo writes.
What social change you are seeking is best aligned with your values and mission for yourself as an individual and as leader of an organization. The need for change may be sparked by a feeling of a lack of control.
“What social change you are seeking is best aligned with your #values and #mission for yourself as an individual and as leader of an organization. @takeleadwomen #socialchange”
In “The Testaments,” Atwood has created a world that has women only controlling a minimum of their own lives and even less of the world around them. The domicile is the extent of their control.
“The absence of control can feel like a direct threat to their purpose and well-being,” Alonzo writes. “Having choice leads to greater feelings of confidence and success.”
Putting into action Power Tool #3, or Use What You've Got, according to Take The Lead, is learning, “How to use what you’ve got and assess your own points of power and the power relationships you want to nurture.”
Alonzo writes, “Believe in your agency. Responding is active, a mindful and deliberate decision you make after thinking through various options; a response is an action you choose because it helps you move toward your goal.”
Shifting the focus of the social change you are intentioning from problem focused to a solution focus is key. Feldt writes, “Solution focus asks: What’s possible? What can we do right now? What is a new vision we can create for the future? This shift doesn’t make the obstacles disappear, but it reframes them as opportunities for creativity, collaboration, and leadership.”
“Gloria Feldt @takeleadwomen: “This shift to solutions doesn’t make the obstacles disappear, but it reframes them as opportunities for #creativity, #collaboration, and #leadership.”
Read more here from Gloria Feldt on social change
Social change is a forever, ongoing necessity through history.
In their new book, Larry M. Bartels and Katherine J. Cramer write in The Politics of Social Change: “Gender disparities also persist, despite advances in women’s equality. Women continue to earn less than men in comparable jobs, just 85 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2024. Wage disparities for women of color are even more extreme. Despite gains in women’s representation in professional roles in law, health care, and higher education, they still make up far less than half of leadership in those fields. They are underrepresented at every level, from entry-level positions to senior leadership roles in private industry. And they are dramatically underrepresented in government, with just 26% of the US Senate, 28.7% of the US House, 30.3% of statewide elected executive offices, and 33.5% of state legislative offices held by women as of 2025.”
This is why invigorating energy to this issue requires action to make the social change.
According to Feldt, “At Take The Lead, our leadership development program aimed at achieving intersectional gender parity in leadership makes this action-oriented approach a cornerstone of how we teach women to lead. A solution-focused mindset shift helps women to know their power so they can embrace it and move from frustration to action, whether they’re addressing challenges in their workplaces, personal life, or social change. “
“A solution-focused mindset shift helps #women to know their power so they can embrace it and move from frustration to action, whether they’re addressing #challenges in their #workplaces, personal life, or social change, “ says Gloria Feldt, co-founder, pres @takeleadwomen.”
